In its final game before beginning SEC play, No. 25-ranked Auburn men’s basketball got out to another fast start as it rolled past Penn 88-68 Tuesday night at Neville Arena.

Auburn (11-2) is now the winner of six consecutive games before heading on the road to face Arkansas on Saturday. It continues to blow out opponents over the streak. Head coach Bruce Pearl’s team enters SEC play with the best average margin of victory in the conference (winning by an average of 18 points, before Tuesday’s game).

Here are three takeaways from the non-conference finale.

Auburn starts fast, again

A comment on this Auburn team up until its win over UNC Asheville in Huntsville was starting slow before really turning it on over the latter portion of the first half. Either way, that resulted in some huge Auburn halftime leads.

But slow starts no longer seem to be an issue with this team in the four games since, including Tuesday night against Penn.

Auburn jumped out to an 8-0 lead in the first two minutes and an 11-2 lead over the first four minutes. It’s because Auburn just seemed unable to miss on its 3-point shots.

The Tigers made seven of their first nine deep shots, two of which came from center Johni Broome (more on that in a bit).

Auburn put itself on cruise control from there. Mostly.

Auburn can win in many different ways. The Tigers keep proving it.

Auburn beat Chattanooga on Saturday because it knew it boasted a large size advantage. And Auburn took advantage of it with a dominating effort in the paint on both ends.

And though Auburn had a size advantage again against Penn, it didn’t need it.

Instead, Auburn just kept shooting and shooting from deep. And it kept making its shots, too. In the first half at least.

As a team, Auburn shot 10-19 on 3-pointers in the first half. Aden Holloway, Jaylin Williams, Denver Jones, K.D. Johnson, Tre Donaldson and Broome all made a shot from deep in the first half.

Broome made both of the two 3s he attempted — 72 seconds apart. They were his first makes from deep since Auburn’s win against Notre Dame on Nov. 16. Broome has been putting a significant amount of effort to improving his 3-point shooting. If he can find the ability to consistently stretch the floor, it will do wonders for both Auburn’s offense and his NBA stock.

Pearl put a large focus during the offseason into improving Auburn’s 3-point shooting. Largely — albeit not consistently — he’s succeeded.

Auburn majorly cooled off on its 3-pointers in the second half. Auburn was lucky it had such a large lead that it did not matter.

Auburn has shown it can get out to big leads and win games with its 3-point shooting, it can do it with its size on the interior and it can do so with its depth on the bench. Auburn doesn’t rely on any one player and can change its style to fit a given matchup. It’s what makes this offense quite dangerous come the postseason.

Auburn’s lackadaisical second-half defense could be a problem

After Auburn beat USC in December and had three games remaining before entering SEC play, Holloway mentioned the biggest thing Auburn needed to work on was its second-half defense.

Pearl has mentioned that the struggles are largely because Auburn is on the opposite end of the floor from its bench and it’s harder for the players to hear the signals the coaches are calling out.

And in three games inside the friendly walls of Neville Arena, Auburn hasn’t solved its problem. It needed a mid-second-half spark from K.D. Johnson to find enough life to prevent a Penn comeback.

The defense got better as the half went on, but without much consistency.

On one hand, Auburn isn’t going to have many big leads to rest back on in SEC play like it has had against lesser non-conference competition.

On the other, if Auburn is struggling with second-half communication inside Neville Arena, doing so at Arkansas’ Bud Walton Arena on Saturday is going to be a problem.

Matt Cohen covers Auburn sports for AL.com. You can follow him on X at @Matt_Cohen_ or email him at [email protected]